Stellantis tries to abandon battery charging for lo
Why waste time charging a battery when you could simply swap it for a charge? This is the solution that Stellantis wants to test with the help of Ample and a hundred electric Fiat 500s adapted to this system and which will be tested in Spain. These cars will not waste time being recharged, but will change the battery pack in five minutes at the Ample points set up specifically for this purpose.
Ample, which launched publicly in 2021 after seven years of confidential testing, has designed a fully autonomous electric vehicle battery swapping station suitable for rapid scale-up and deployment. Battery swapping technology can also help address EV buyers' concerns, including long charging times, range anxiety and battery wear.
Unlike installing traditional public electric vehicle charging infrastructure, Ample's battery swapping station doesn't require major construction work because it fits in a space as small as two standard parking spaces, according to MIT Technology Review . Additionally, according to Ample, it can be installed in just three days, making the stations a cost-effective option for shopping centers, grocery stores, highway rest areas and gas stations.
Ample said its modular battery swapping technology can work with any electric vehicle model, regardless of size, as it acts as a “drop-in” replacement of the vehicle's original battery.
To facilitate battery replacement, Ample has developed a module that uses an adapter plate designed to fit specific electric vehicles, which also contributes to the structural support of the battery. The adapter plate requires no modifications by Stellantis to the Fiat 500e EV's original design, as it has the same dimensions and bolt pattern as the vehicle's original one, according to Ample.
When an Ample-enabled EV approaches one of the trading stations, it is immediately recognized. Once the vehicle is parked inside the station, the driver can initiate the automatic exchange process from Ample's mobile application. After this step, the robots remove the discharged battery module from underneath the vehicle and replace it with a fully charged one.
Once removed from a vehicle, the discharged battery is placed on storage shelves and recharged so that it is ready for the next vehicle in which it is installed.
The app also shows drivers the location of nearby Ample interchange stations.
Ample technology can also be used to upgrade an electric vehicle's battery with a more powerful one or to replace individual battery modules instead of the entire pack, depending on how much of the battery is depleted and the distance the vehicle has to travel to reach its destination.
Stellanis said Ample's technology will be available to customers via a subscription to reduce the initial total cost of the vehicle. Stellantis and Ample are also in talks to expand the modular battery swapping technology to other vehicle platforms and regions.
Startup Nio, one of Tesla's main rivals in China, was the first automaker to offer the battery-swapping technology to its customers. In April, the company said it had opened 1,383 battery swapping stations in China and Europe, where it sells its vehicles.
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The article Stellantis tries to abandon battery charging for it comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/stellantis-prova-ad-abbandonare-la-ricarica-della-batteria-per-lo/ on Sat, 09 Dec 2023 06:15:18 +0000.